ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' football team retained the Wilford Moore Trophy with a 24-19 win over crosstown foe McMurry on Saturday night at Shelton Stadium.
The win was the Cowboys' 11
th straight against McMurry and the third straight in a one-possession game that went down to the wire in the series.
With McMurry driving inside 2:00,
Caden Sampson-Stuckey came up with a sack on fourth down to end McMurry's chance of the upset.
McMurry took the initial lead on a 42-yard field goal by Jax Rodriguez with 6:23 to play in the first quarter.
The Cowboys answered with 24 straight points to take a 24-3 lead.
Wes Douglas scored on an 8-yard touchdown pass from
Kyle Brown with 2:39 to play in the first quarter and on the ensuing possession,
Mike Akinbisola picked off a Jess Hoel pass and returned it 15 yards for a touchdown.
Freshman quarterback
Ty Thompson scored on a 1-yard sneak with 9:41 to play in the first half. Pedro Altamarino kicked a 19-yard field goal with 4:37 to play in the half.
Rodriguez hit his second field goal of the half with :25 seconds to play from 44 yards out to make the score 24-6 at halftime.
McMurry scored on a Nyles Hullaby 2-yard touchdown run with 2:30 to play in the third quarter. The War Hawks cut the deficit to 24-19 on a 54-yard pass from backup quarterback Dylan Plake to Xavier Williams from 54 yards out. Plake replaced Hoel who was injured in the third quarter.
Brown was 13-of-27 for 228 yards in the contest. Douglas had six catches for 152 yards and a touchdown.
Noah Garcia led the Cowboys with 70 yards rushing.
Hoel was 12-of-21 with a pair of interceptions and 101 yards passing. Plake went 11-of-19 for 145 yards. Kason O'Shields had six catches for 91 yards.
Mark Champion led the Cowboy defense with eight tackles, including 2.5 for losses and a sack.
HSU had 340 yards in the contest and McMurry finished with 302.
The Cowboys are now 2-0 on the year and will play host to Louisiana Christian next Saturday at 1 p.m. McMurry fell to 0-2 on the season.
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